Tuesday, July 4, 2023

S.H. Figuarts Sailor V/Chibi-Moon/Eternal Moon review

It's time for another look at some Figuarts from the Sailor Moon series, as we have two lunar rabbits and a preceding prototype-kind of look for Minako Aino that depicts her in the pre-Senshi days as Sailor V. Once again, we have a pre-animation color figure with Sailor V while Eternal Moon is made after all of the other animation-colored reissues, though she was made before they began to come out as the figure was announced back in 2019, then brought up again for preorder in 2021, and set for release in 2022. Thankfully, we have a pretty good set of figures that aren't too ridiculously pricy, though we'll see if they are worth getting despite being already out nearly a year by this point. Also, happy birthday to Serena/Usagi Tsukino and Rini/Chibi-Usa!


Here we have Sailor V in-hand. This figure is depicted in the pre-Senshi uniform that she wore upon first meeting Artemis in the manga as well as the anime (and by extension, PGSM, Crystal, and any spin-off media that popped up in other formats). While her outfit may be similar to Sailor Moon's, there are various differences beyond who's wearing it, such as the shoulder pads, red lines instead of white lines for the collar, her own choker, orange on the edges of the gloves, a red trim under the skirt, and an exposed midriff. The torso also has a red-and-white pattern that is moreso prominent in the front. Being based on an older release, this has been given a more faded shade of yellow in contrast to the vibrant yellow that the animation-colored version has. I would love to see this have a more saturated deco if I'm honest.


Head sculpt is about the same as the ones that came with Sailor Venus, but the main difference comes from the different earrings on her as well as the lack of a tiara, with a crescent placed instead as we'd later see Sailor Moon use when she's Princess Serenity, or Eternal Sailor Moon, or Neo-Queen Serenity. The articulation is the same as before, so instead, we'll cover the accessories she comes with, depicting her a yelling face, an angry face, an open mouth happy face, two versions of the shades (one with and without lenses), various alternate hands, one of them being made for holding her shades, and the stand. 


Her articulation is the same as the other ones we got in the past, so there isn't much else to say beyond that this, being an older release, has fragility issues, as the joints are cracked on my copy yet are still holding up albeit are now looser than the other figures I have. You can still manage most of the poses she can do, but it is nerve-racking. So maybe wait for Tamashii Nations to make a repaint that has improved joints and more saturated colors. It's a miracle this didn't break on me compared to the various broken Dragon Ball figures.


Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Up next, here is Sailor Chibi-Moon. The 10th release in the Animation Color subline, this figure uses an entirely different sculpt from the rest of the Sailor Scouts, having it fit her age and proportions due to her being younger than the rest of the characters (though being older than her appearances in R/Season 2). The down-scaling to the standard senshi figure keeps the qualities of the base intact, though the boe does look oversized on her, the elbow joints don't flow as well as the ones on the older Senshi, and the skirt looks shorter than it should be. I really wish it didn't have to be at its current length because it gets annoying when you are trying to avoid the unintended leotard shot, which is already impolite with the other characters but it's even worse with Rini. Also, the quality of the figure is more or less the same as the rest of the characters, though the smaller scale does make me feel more worried about breaking her on accident.


Head sculpt is also given the benefit of having the proper proportions of the character, being smaller and rounder in contrast to the unique shaping of the older senshi. Being the daughter of Sailor Moon, Mini-Moon also has a tiara with a red gen and similar hair strands that are more noticeable on her than on her mother, but her odangos are now shaped like rabbit ears while her twin tails are much poofier and shorter by comparison. Her accessories give her 3 alternate face plates (open mouth happy, neutral glare, and yelling), an alternate hair piece that adds the triple feather attachments on her hair like Super Sailor Moon, her own set of alternate hands which are now on a tray rather than on a dedicated attachment like with Sailor V and Super Moon, her own Pink Moon Rod, and the obligatory stand.


Her articulation is almost identical to the other Senshi, but there are a few differences: there is now rotation at the elbows rather than at the bicep (which was impossible to do because of how seamless they wanted the figures to look with the shoulder pieces), the hands are on simple ball pegs rather than a combo of wrist pegs and hinges for alternating between up and down/in and out hinging), and there may or may not be any drop-down hips. Everything else is more-or-less intact. It's nice that she can swap parts with the hair in addition to the alternate faces, and I also value getting her in the same Punish-You-In-The-Name-Of-The-Moon pose as her future mother.  The scale between the both of them is also perfect, though I have to admit that I only recommend Sailor Puny-Moon if you see her on clearance. It's not like she has any extra accessories to justify the same price tag that the other Senshi go for.


Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

And now, it's time for Eternal Sailor Moon! After being announced only as a prototype back in 2019, which was probably around the same time Viz released their dub of the show, this figure does the more layered scoutfit she wears in the final season some justice, especially with how uncommon it is for modern merch apart from the recent Eternal movies that were made to tie-in with the Crystal universe. Her twin tails are newly sculpted once again, being entirely different from her past iterations. The outfit has new details added to it, such as the wings as she gets closer to becoming Neo-Queen Serenity or the triple-layered skirt along with ball-shaped shoulders, the back ribbons being longer and thinner than they once were, longer gloves, and even her boots becoming white instead of red. One complaint I have is that the paint apps for the flesh tone on the boots are mismatched in some way.


Her head sculpt continues to show the character's maturity increase from the beginning up to the final season. The eyes and the physique of the face are already good traits of depicting her change over the years, but the removal of her tiara in favor of the crescent on the forehead is an additional alteration of the character design that makes her closer to her role as Neo-Queen Serenity. Her accessories are the standard 3 alternate faces, the Eternal Tiare, six hands, and the standard base pieces with a unique claw meant for her skirt design.


It's odd how we're reverting to the smaller alternate hand count with this character, as she has no fists or splayed-open hands in the same way the older releases tend to do, though her weapon-holding hand can serve as a pose for her roll-call. Her Eternal Tiare is nicely painted as well as the rest of her and the other releases we got in the past. Her wings do give her some additional flight poses to be more possible, but I'll admit that it's not too easy for them to actually flap the same way we'd see them do when she was either Princess Serena one more time or when she was a nude angel in the final episode. But at the very least, the more important poses are still possible to do.


In addition, the weapon-holding hand has the perfect circumference for certain weapons she can hold no problem, and that made me want to be super-creative with the options she has in store! So one image gives her the lightsaber of Black Series Obi-Wan Kenobi in case she wants to use the Force against Galaxia, or a rifle from the 4-inch Master Chief so it can be better held in her hands while Chief can use the pistol that scales with him better. Also, her wings do not stay on well, which is especially annoying when you want to have them angled and they start to come off too easily.


Since you already saw her next to Master Chief for a size comparison, here she is in between her first two main forms from the past of the series. Regular Sailor Moon was the first Figuart I got from the series, and that form is already iconic for how simple yet effective it is as a whole. The Super form feels like a nice in-between design with being more out-there while still maintaining some practicality to her design. Eternal Moon is still good, but I kind of feel her design does seem a little impractical in terms of mobility. The skirt thing isn't an issue if it were fabric, but those wings knocked over some dishes in her house. I do recommend this figure regardless, as it is about time it received a release. It might work for some custom Eternal versions of the other characters, and it should be discounted by this point. It also fits in better with the Animation color versions more than Supermoon does due to the skin color not being pale or having a weird green tint.


Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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